Suicide risk in the detachment from reality: failures in the quest for love that saves

Suicide is among the leading causes of death worldwide, accounting for almost one million annual deaths globally. The author presents an exploration into the suicidal mind using Freud's cathexis and decathexis theory. This model describes the patient’s withdrawal from reality and the need to gratify libidinal and aggressive drives in the internal world. Theories and beliefs of other authors are used to introduce the importance of early disturbed relationships with parental figures. Working with the particular subtype of suicidal patient described in this essay may be a challenge for clinicians. A psychodynamic approach may help in the understanding of the patient’s complex and private world of psychological pain. If unresolved, the patient’s conflicts may precipitate suicide.     

The Italian Version of the Cognitive Style Indicator and its Association with Decision-Making Preferences

The Cognitive Style Indicator (CoSI) includes 3 cognitive dimensions: creating (flexible, open-ended and inventive), knowing (emphasizing facts, details, objectivity, and rationality), and planning (guided by preferences for certainty and well-structured information). The first aim of this research was to validate the 3-factor structure of the CoSI within the Italian context. The second was to verify whether cognitive styles, as measured by the CoSI, accounted for individual differences in decision-making processes. Two studies were conducted using 2 different samples (n = 549 and n = 397). Confirmatory and multigroup factor analysis corroborated the 3-factor model and the measurement invariance of the instrument across genders. Reliability indices showed good internal consistency, as well as good levels of convergent and discriminant construct validity. Results from structural equation model revealed that cognitive styles, as measured by the CoSI, predicted individual differences in intuitive and deliberative decision-making processes. Findings gave evidence for the validity of the Italian version of the CoSI and for the causal relationship between cognitive styles and decision-making processes. Further research is needed to explore a more comprehensive model that includes, for example, personality.     

The Net in the Park

Ubiquitous Computing, Pervasive Computing, Physical Computing, Everyware, Tangible User Interface, and the Internet of Things all share the same viewpoint—a viewpoint that sees computers, phones, and game consoles as no longer being the only devices in our environment deemed worthy to embody computation and be connected. Each of these approaches focuses on slightly different aspects of the features and potentialities of the enabling technologies (i.e., Physical Computing focuses on the growing power of microcontrollers; IOT on the increasing influence of tagging systems; Everyware on the pervasiveness of the web through wired and wireless connections, etc.) We understand and place more emphasis on the similarities then the differences among these approaches, and at the same time, we try to address specific human activity issues by exploiting these new enabling technologies and visions. In the paper, we present a project, Wi-roni, that addresses two issues: in-person communication and the added value of being in a given location when accessing a given content. To this end, we considered in some detail the possibilities of three of these enabling technologies: ultrasound sensors, MEMS, and mash-up of Internet application. These technologies were chosen based on the nature of the human activity, and not vice versa. In Wi-roni, an Urban Architecture project located in the La Gora public park in Monteroni d'Arbia, a small village in the province of Siena (Italy), we developed two interconnect solutions: Wi-wave, a column for accessing web audio content in public spaces, and Wi-swing, a children’s swing that tells stories while swinging. These devices represent both the concrete grounds from which to begin to address the abovementioned human activity issues and the playground in which to explore the new, emerging interaction modalities that the enabling technologies could allow.     

Psychache and suicide: a preliminary investigation

Shneidman's Psychological Pain Assessment Scale (PPAS; 1999) was administered to 88 psychiatric patients. Both current and worst-ever psychache were significantly higher in those patients judged by a psychiatrist, on the basis of a structured clinical interview, to be at risk of suicide. However, current and worstever psychache were not associated with having attempted suicide in the past. Thus, for the present sample of psychiatric patients, the PPAS appears to be more sensitive to current suicidality than to past suicidality. Further, there are validity issues with the PPAS, with the need for multi-item measures and probably a multifactor measure.     

The temporal stability of the effects induced by the cued reaction time task

The temporal stability of the effects induced by the Cued Reaction Time Task (CRTT) on the orienting of attention was assessed across four weekly sessions. Benefits, costs, and validity effects were computed for each session, and the correlation coefficients between each session were calculated (interindividual stability index). Intraindividual stability indices, the percentage of individuals showing both costs and benefits or the validity effect, were also calculated. The results (based on 41 participants) show a low stability for the effects in which the neutral trials were involved (benefits and costs) but an acceptable reliability for the validity effect, especially when evaluated using the intraindividual index. To maximize the reliability of the data collected using the CRTT, the validity effect seems to be a better probe of spatial orienting of attention.     

Neuropsychological assessment could distinguish among different clinical phenotypes of progressive supranuclear palsy: A Machine Learning approach

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a rare, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease. Richardson’s syndrome (PSP-RS) and predominant parkinsonism (PSP-P) are characterized by wide range of cognitive and behavioural disturbances, but these variants show similar cognitive pattern of alterations, leading difficult differential diagnosis. For this reason, we explored with an Artificial Intelligence approach, whether cognitive impairment could differentiate the phenotypes. Forty Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, 25 PSP-P, 40 PSP-RS, and 34 controls were enrolled following the consensus criteria diagnosis. Participants were evaluated with neuropsychological battery for cognitive domains. Random Forest models were used for exploring the discriminant power of the cognitive tests in distinguishing among the four groups. The classifiers for distinguishing diseases from controls reached high accuracies (86% for PD, 95% for PSP-P, 99% for PSP-RS). Regarding the differential diagnosis, PD was discriminated from PSP-P with 91% (important variables: HAMA, MMSE, JLO, RAVLT_I, BDI-II) and from PSP-RS with 92% (important variables: COWAT, JLO, FAB). PSP-P was distinguished from PSP-RS with 84% (important variables: JLO, WCFST, RAVLT_I, Digit span_F). This study revealed that PSP-P, PSP-RS and PD had peculiar cognitive deficits compared with healthy subjects, from which they were discriminated with optimal accuracies. Moreover, high accuracies were reached also in differential diagnosis. Most importantly, Machine Learning resulted to be useful to the clinical neuropsychologist in choosing the most appropriate neuropsychological tests for the cognitive evaluation of PSP patients.     

The Italian version of the Thinking About Life Experiences Questionnaire and its relationship with gender,age, and life events on Facebook

The present study provided a cross-cultural validation of the Thinking About Life Experiences Scale-revised (TALE-R) in an Italian sample of Facebook users (n = 492; female = 378; male = 114; mean age 26.1) to test for replication and universality of the TALE-R three-factor model. Furthermore, it explored the interrelations among gender, age, the scores at the TALE-R and the frequency of posting textual/visual information about individuals' life events on Facebook. Results at exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis gave empirical support to both of a tripartite model for the functions of autobiographical memory (i.e., directive-behavior, social-bonding, and self-continuity) and measurement invariance of this three-factor model across gender and age. Further results at linear correlation and regression analyses showed that directive-behavior and self-continuity functions of autobiographical memory are significantly related to the ways people use Facebook for personal documentation. Age differences more than gender influence this association. Discussion and conclusion reported both theoretical and empirical implications of the findings of the study.     

Difference in sensorimotor adaptation to horizontal and vertical mirror distortions during ballistic arm movements

When learning a novel motor task, the sensorimotor system must develop new strategies to efficiently control the limb(s) involved, and this adaptation appears to be developed through the construction of a behavioral map known as an 'internal model'. A common method to uncover the mechanisms of adaptation and reorganization processes is to expose the system to new environmental conditions, typically by introducing visual or mechanical distortions. The present study investigated the adaptation mechanisms of the human sensorimotor system to horizontal and vertical mirror distortions (HMD and VMD) during the execution of fast goal-directed arm movements. Mirror distortions (MDs) were created by means of virtual visual feedback on a computer screen while the movement was executed on a graphics tablet. Twenty healthy adult participants were recruited and assigned to one of two groups of 10 people each. Tests were divided in two subsequent blocks of five trials. The first block consisted of trials with no mirror distortion (NMD), while the second block was recorded when exposing one group to HMD and the other to VMD. Both MDs resulted in kinematic changes: during the tests with the MDs the participants did not reach the performance level found at the NMD test. Motor performance during HMD appeared to be globally better than during VMD and the adaptation process to VMD appeared to be slower than to HMD, but data interpretation was hampered by large within-participant and between-participant variability. In-depth analyses of the data revealed that most of the motor performance information was contained in the direction of movement. The data supported the idea that the internal model for HMD was already partially built.